Date Time Formats
Date and time formats can be set from the worksheet and from many locations in Grapher. Date and time options are case sensitive. Months always need to be entered with upper case M and minutes must always be entered with lower case m.
When dates are parsed during input/import, the month and day of week names must match those of the local language as set in the Windows Control Panel, otherwise the entry will not be recognized as a valid date and will be treated as a text string.
When the recognized format is ambiguous (i.e. 10/7/12), the month, day, and year order is determined by the Windows locale. In some countries, this will be recognized as M/d/yy, in others as d/M/yy, and in others as YY/M/d. It is important to use non-ambiguous date/time formats when the Windows locale may change.
General Date/Time Formats
These are the general date and time formats. These can be used in the worksheet Format Cells dialog, in the plot window label format section, or from the Date/Time Format Builder dialog. Any combination of these formats can be used in any of these locations.
Skip to the Predefined Date/Time Formats section for the allowed linked text formats.
All rows below use the date July 9, 2014 at 6:45:44.12345 in the evening for the Example.
|
Date/Time Code |
Example |
Description |
|
d |
9 |
Single digit day, excluding leading zero |
|
dd |
09 |
Double digit day, including leading zero |
|
ddd |
Wed |
Shortened day of week name |
|
dddd |
Wednesday |
Full day of week name |
|
M |
7 |
Single digit month, excluding leading zero |
|
MM |
07 |
Double digit month, including leading zero |
|
MMM |
Jul |
Shortened month name |
|
MMMM |
July |
Full month name |
|
MMMMM |
J |
First letter of month name |
|
yy |
98 |
Two digit year |
|
yyyy |
1998 |
Full year |
|
g |
|
Before Common Era designator - Includes space and bce or nothing if ce, lower case |
|
gg |
ad |
BC/AD designator - Includes space and bc or ad, lower case |
|
ggg |
ce |
Before Common Era designator - Includes space and bce or ce, lower case |
|
G |
|
Before Common Era designator - Includes space and BCE or nothing if CE, upper case |
|
GG |
AD |
BC/AD designator - Includes space and BC or AD, upper case |
|
GGG |
CE |
Before Common Era designator - Includes space and BCE or CE, upper case |
|
h |
6 |
Single digit hours - 1-12, excluding leading zero |
|
hh |
06 |
Double digit hours - 01-12, including leading zero |
|
H |
18 |
Hours - 0-23 military, excluding leading zero |
|
HH |
18 |
Hours - 00-23 military, including leading zero |
|
[h] |
1003914 |
Hours portion of total time, excludes leading zeros |
|
m |
45 |
Minutes - 0-60, excluding leading zero |
|
mm |
45 |
Minutes - 00 to 60, including leading zero |
|
[mm] |
45 |
Minutes portion of total time, includes leading zeros |
|
ss |
44 |
Seconds - 0-60, rounded to the nearest second |
|
ss.0 |
44.1 |
Seconds - 0-60, rounded to the nearest tenth of a second |
|
ss.00 |
44.12 |
Seconds - 0-60, rounded to the nearest hundredth of a second |
|
ss.000 |
44.123 |
Seconds - 0-60, rounded to the nearest millisecond |
|
ss.0000 |
44.12345 |
Seconds - 0-60, maximum precision |
|
[ss] |
44 |
Seconds portion of total time, includes leading zeros |
|
tt |
pm |
am or pm designator, lower case |
|
TT |
PM |
AM or PM designator, upper case |
|
\ |
|
escape character - output next character verbatim |
|
'...' |
|
output ALL characters between single quotes verbatim, including escape character |
|
[$-xxxx] |
[$-409] |
xxxx is an up to four hex digit representation of a locale ID |
Predefined Date/Time Formats
The predefined date/time formats are the only formats that can be used inside the linked text brackets <<date/time>> when creating linked text via typing in the Text Editor or automation. You can combine predefined formats by writing separate <<date/time>> fields in the Text Editor or script. For example, you can type <<M/d/yy>> <<h:mm TT>> in the Text Editor to display both time and date.
If you cannot create the desired format by combining predefined date/time formats, consider using the Insert Date/Time button in the Text Editor.
All rows below use the date July 9, 2014 at 6:45:44.12345 in the evening for the Example.
|
Date/Time Code |
Example |
Description |
|
M/d/yy |
7/9/14 |
Single digit month, Single digit day, two digit year - separated by forward slash |
|
MM/dd/yy |
07/09/14 |
Two digit month, day, and year - separated with forward slash |
|
MMM dd, yyyy |
Jul 09, 2014 |
Shortened month name, two digit day, four digit year - separated by spaces and a comma |
|
MMMM dd, yyyy |
July 09, 2014 |
Full month name, two digit day, four digit year - separated by spaces and a comma |
|
d-MMM-yy |
9-Jul-14 |
Single digit day, shortened month name, two digit year - separated by hyphens |
|
d-MMM |
9-Jul |
Single digit day, shortened month name - separated by hyphens |
|
MMM-yy |
Jul-14 |
Shortened month name, two digit year - separated by hyphen |
|
MMM-yyyy |
Jul-2014 |
Shortened month name, four digit year - separated by hyphen |
|
MMMM-yyyy |
July-2014 |
Full month name, four digit year - separated by hyphen |
|
h:mm TT |
6:45 PM |
clock Hours and minutes with AM/PM designator |
|
h:mm:ss TT |
6:45:44 PM |
Hours, minutes, and seconds with AM/PM designator |
|
HH:mm |
18:45 |
24-hour clock hours and minutes |
|
HH:mm:ss |
18:45:44 |
24-hour clock hours, minutes, and seconds |
|
M/d/yy HH:mm |
7/9/14 18:45 |
Single digit month, single digit day, two digit year, 24-hour clock hours and minutes |
|
yyyy |
2014 |
Four digit year |
|
yy |
14 |
Two digit year |
|
MMMM |
July |
Full month name |
|
MMM |
Jul |
Shortened month name |
|
MM |
07 |
Two digit month |
|
M |
7 |
Single digit month |
|
dddd |
Wednesday |
Full day name |
|
ddd |
Wed |
Shortened day name |
|
dd |
09 |
Two digit day |
|
d |
9 |
Single digit day |
|
d/M/yy |
9/7/14 |
Single digit day, single digit month, two digit year - separated by forward slash |
|
dd/MM/yy |
09/07/14 |
Two digit day, two digit month, two digit year - separated by forward slash |
|
yy/MM/dd |
14/07/09 |
Two digit year, two digit month, two digit day - separated by forward slash |
|
yyyy-MM-dd |
2014-07-09 |
Four digit year, two digit month, two digit day - separated by hyphen |